Do people reach 100 by surviving, delaying, or avoiding diseases?

Seems their findings are that, to grossly oversimplify, some people just have a higher chance of getting sick than others, and that remains consistent from youth to old age. And given how many chances there are to get sick, making it through 'the filter' to get to 100 is only realistically going to happen to those who are both lucky and have that low base rate of disease going for them.

Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Schmidt#Personal_life who died at 96.

Of some fame because he ordered the first and successful GSG 9 (which was founded because of the failed Munich Olympics rescue operation) assault, despite many not agreeing with him at the time:

    In October 1977, he ordered an anti-terrorist unit of Bundesgrenzschutz policemen to end the Palestinian terrorist hijacking of a Lufthansa aircraft named Landshut, staged to secure the release of imprisoned RAF leaders, after it landed in Mogadishu, Somalia. Three of the four kidnappers were killed during the assault on the plane, but all 86 passengers were rescued unharmed

He was an avid drinker and smoker.

    On 25 January 2008, German police launched an inquiry after an anti-smoking initiative charged that Schmidt was defying the recently introduced smoking ban. The initiative claimed that Schmidt had been flagrantly ignoring anti-smoking laws. On 6 April 2010, with a lifespan of 33,342 days, he surpassed Konrad Adenauer in terms of longevity, and at the time of his death was the oldest former chancellor in German history.